For years Douglas Sylvester dispensed a key piece of advice to aspiring law ­professors attending the annual two-day hiring conference in Washington organized by the Association of American Law Schools: Steer clear of the hotel lobby Starbucks on Saturday morning. The line will stretch out the door with professor hopefuls and hiring committee members fueling up before a packed day of job interviews.

For the past two years, however, that coffee shop has been nearly empty as fewer law schools attend the hiring conference, and many that do so complete their interviews in a single day, said Sylvester, dean of the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

“They wrap up on Friday, and it's a ghost town on Saturday,” he said.